The boundaries of Brixton Hundred have probably not changed since
1086, when they included the following places: Battersea, Bermondsey,
Camberwell, Hatcham, Lambeth,
Walworth, Streatham, Barnes,
Merton, Mortlake, Tooting and
Wandsworth. (fn. 1) Rotherhithe was
then included in Bermondsey,
and Wimbledon and Putney in
Mortlake. Southwark is not
entered in the Survey under the
hundred of Brixton (fn. 2) : in later
times the borough was a
franchise; but the parish of
Christchurch was within the
jurisdiction of the hundred. (fn. 3)

INDEX MAP TO THE HUNDRED OF BRIXTON

Brixton has always been a
royal hundred. There is mention of its three weeks court
in 1258. (fn. 4) The hundred was let
to farm under Edward I for
20s. a year. (fn. 5) In 1566 a custom had grown up which compelled high
constables of the jurisdiction to retain office for life, an obligation said to
have caused some persons to abscond. (fn. 6) The custody of the hundred was
granted in 1617 to John Champion, gentleman, and William Weneham, to
hold for twenty-one years, with all appurtenances, the offices of steward
and of bailiff, and the profits of leets, views of frankpledge and hundred
courts. Fines and amercements in any of the king's courts of record or
before the justices of assize, the justices of peace and the clerk of the market
were reserved; and a yearly rent of £3 6s. 7d. was to be rendered for this
hundred and that of Wallington. (fn. 7) In 1651 the hundred was surveyed as a
late possession of the king. It appears that its administration had become
merged with that of Wallington. A court leet for both hundreds was held
at Mitcham in Wallington at the usual times, and its jurisdiction extended
over all the townships or tithings which rendered a common fine to the
hundred. These, however, included, within Brixton, only Clapham and
Hatcham, which paid respectively 3s. and 10d. a year. It is to be
concluded that obligation to suit of the hundred court had elsewhere lapsed
or otherwise ceased. (fn. 8) Constables and tithingmen were at this date discharged
at the court, evidently annual, and their successors sworn; officers were fined
for default, and public nuisances were presented and amerced. The three
weeks court had evidently been for long discontinued, for the surveyors stated
that they could not learn that it had ever taken place, but that they believed
the lord of the court leet might hold it if he pleased. The courts were held
by the sheriff who received the profits of the hundreds. These, in so far as
they were not derived from common fines, amounted to £6 6s. 8d. a year. (fn. 9)
The Local Government Act of 1888 circumscribed Brixton Hundred by the
annexation of all its parishes, except Barnes, Merton, Mortlake and Wimbledon,
to the county of London. (fn. 10)

8. In the year 1399, for which the rolls of the two courts held at Easter and Michaelmas are extant
(Ct.R. [P.R.O.], portf. 205, no. 22), only the townships of Tooting Graveney, Tooting Bec and Clapham
were represented at the first court, and of Clapham, Tooting Graveney, Tooting Bec, Peckham and Camberwell at the second. Extensive private franchises had evidently curtailed the jurisdiction of the hundred
at an early date.